Apple’s highly anticipated press conference to address the iPhone 4′s reception issues is now over and according to Steve Jobs, the entire fiasco was completely blown out of proportion. He made it a point that signal issues (depending on how you hold it) are prevalent on all smartphones and not just on the iPhone. Surprisingly, only 0.55% of iPhone 4 users have called AppleCare to voice their concerns and AT&T’s return rates for early shipments was only 1.7% (compared to 6% for the 3GS). As such, there will be no recall – as some have speculated – but rather, Apple will be giving away a free Bumper Case for every iPhone 4 purchased through September 30th. For those who already bought one, they’ll be given a refund. And since Apple won’t be able to manufacture enough of these in time, other cases will be sourced and buyers will have a choice to the one they want.

Antenna issues aside, Jobs also shared that the White iPhone 4 will begin shipping by the end of July. More importantly, the next wave of iPhone 4 releases will not be affected and 17 countries (including Australia, Canada, HK, Italy etc) will begin selling the phone on July 30th.

Are you satisfied with Apple’s decision to give out free cases for every purchase? Personally, I didn’t think that a recall was going to happen, so this offer was their next best move. Nicely done Jobs.

The entire Press Conference (+ Q&A session) can be found on Engadget’s live blogging event.

Update: You can now watch the entire Press Conference via Apple website.

How many people DIDN’t call into apple care because they found it would be a useless call, and or went to a genius bar instead? That number isn’t fully correct.

Louis

True enough. The 0.55% figure only applies to those who actually bothered to call AppleCare, and it doesn’t take into account those who physically went into an Apple store for help. One has to wonder what the real percentage is for iPhone 4 users who attempted to reach out to Apple, regardless of method (via phone, genius bar etc)